ABSTRACT
Lack of fresh water in Palestine became a great problem. The increasing demand for water with continuous decrease in natural water supply has created an increasing water deficit in the resources available. Demand in Palestine is now twice the natural supply, which has led to an increase in water salinity and seawater intrusion in the coastal zone. Artificial recharge of groundwater is one solution to assist in decreasing the water deficit together with other solutions such as wastewater reuse and seawater desalination. The recharge water comes from two sources, stormwater and well-treated wastewater effluent. The second source also has been used in the nearby Dan region and the chemical and biological analyses of water pumped from recovery wells showed decontamination of groundwater that encouraged the Water Authority to adopt this technology in its strategy. Artificial recharge and desalination are competitive solutions and both will be needed in the short-run to secure the sustainability of the country’s water resources.
